Page 8 of The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor #5)

Chapter Eight

Then

M ac had spent most of his teenage years confusing lust with love.

When he’d made out with Lauren Pepprell at the movies in ninth grade, he had been pretty convinced he was in love with her.

And when Sadie Bates let him feel her up that time her parents were out of town, he was positive he loved her.

And surely, when he lost his virginity to Parker Moore last year, he was in love with her, right?

Sitting in his basement bedroom with Annie, he suddenly wasn’t sure about any of it.

Which was crazy, because he wasn’t in love with Annie. But he’d never stayed up half the night or even like half an afternoon with any of those girls. He’d liked them and they’d come to his games, and he’d taken them on a date or two, but nothing like this had ever happened before.

Annie was currently lying on his bed, snuggling the stuffed polar bear he’d had since birth, and teasing him for admitting that his favorite movie was The Muppet Christmas Carol .

‘I meant like a favorite movie in general, not a Christmas movie,’ she said between giggles.

‘That is my favorite movie!’ he insisted, and Annie started laughing all over again.

He threw a pillow at her from his position draped across the foot of the bed. ‘It’s a good movie.’

‘It’s singing puppets.’ She added the pillow to the stack behind her head. It was after 1 a.m. and he should really take her home, but he was having too much fun.

‘The world’s most beloved singing puppets.’

She shrugged a little like she’d give him that much. ‘Fair.’

‘Thank you.’ He stretched his arms behind his head and stared up at the old drop ceiling above them.

He’d moved into the basement a few years ago for more privacy and, as much as his mom tried to make it homey down here, it was still a basement.

At least twice a year, the whole damn thing flooded. He really needed to move out.

‘Okay, my turn,’ he said.

‘My favorite movie is Pride and Prejudice , the Colin Firth version, obviously. Although, technically, it was a TV series but I’m going to count it.’

‘I don’t know what any of that means. And that wasn’t my question.’

Annie huffed and he could hear her snuggling down into his pillows. ‘Okay, go ahead with your question.’

‘So, you and Logan never hooked up?’ He wasn’t sure why he wanted to know, but he didn’t really think you could be that close a friend with someone of the opposite gender, assuming you were both straight, and not hook up eventually.

Annie returned the pillow from earlier and it landed on his face.

‘Ew.’

‘It’s not that crazy of a question.’ He slipped the pillow behind his head.

‘He is a brother to me in every way except blood. So no, I didn’t hook up with him nor would I, even if we were the last two people on the planet.’

‘Wow, harsh. Poor Logan.’

‘I assure you he feels the same about me.’

‘If you say so.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘I’m just saying, if it was me and I had a hot girl hanging around me all the time, but she only wanted to be friends, that would be tough.’

Annie sat up so she was looking down at him.

‘You think I’m hot?’

Oops. Had he let that slip out?

‘I mean, yeah.’ He tried to say it casually, like he often had girls over, confessed his most embarrassing secrets, showed them his childhood stuffed animals and then told them they were hot. Just a normal evening for ol’ Mac.

Annie’s brow furrowed in a way that said she was skeptical, and Mac wanted to elaborate on exactly why she was hot, starting with that plush bottom lip and ending with the perfect curve of her ass, but he didn’t want to ruin the night.

She flopped back onto the pillows. ‘Okay, moving on. Biggest fear?’

‘Wow, you’re going to go from favorite movie to biggest fear?’

‘Yep, biggest fear, go.’

He could have said bats, because that was true. They were essentially flying mice with fangs which was objectively terrifying. But he had a feeling that wasn’t what Annie was going for.

‘Getting stuck here,’ he said, directing his words to the ceiling. It was easier to confess that way, without Annie’s eyes on him.

‘Define here.’

Mac blew out a long sigh. Damn, this girl was intense. Maybe he should have just complimented her ass and called it a night.

‘Here in town, here in my mom’s basement, here doing nothing with my life.’

‘What do you want to do with your life?’

‘Hold on, it’s my turn and I want you to answer the same question. Biggest fear?’

Annie didn’t skip a beat. ‘Failure.’

‘Failure?’

‘Yep. And don’t try and tell me all that inspirational bullshit about needing to fail before you succeed.’

‘Nah, failing sucks. Getting stuck here would be failing.’

‘Right. And never getting my business off the ground would be failing. And I would hate that.’

Mac sat up so he could look at her. She looked cute, all sleepy with wispy blonde hair escaping her ponytail.

‘Okay, so don’t fail.’

She scoffed. ‘Piece of cake. No pun intended. I just won’t fail. Thank you for that wonderful advice.’

‘No, I mean, it’s only failure if you stop, right? If you keep going, even after a set-back, then you’ll eventually get there.’

Annie considered him for a minute. ‘Yeah, I guess so.’

‘Great. It’s settled. You’ll be running a baking empire in no time.’ He crashed into the pillows next to her, so they were side by side. She rolled over to face him.

‘So, what do you want to do with your life?’ she asked.

‘I hate that question.’

‘It’s okay to say you don’t know yet.’

‘Is it?’ Everyone else seemed to have at least a vague notion and all Mac had was a half-assed plan to drive around the country until he figured it out.

‘Of course it is. We’re only nineteen.’

‘Says the woman with a master business plan.’

She giggled and he liked it. Probably too much. This whole night was messing with his head. But he liked this girl. It was the only feeling he’d had in a long time that he was sure about.

‘It’s too bad we didn’t hang out sooner,’ he said, wishing they hadn’t wasted so many years.

‘What did you really think of me in high school?’ she asked.

‘That you were a stuck-up over-achiever with super shiny hair and a great ass.’

Her eyes widened in surprise. ‘I don’t know if I should be mad or flattered.’

Mac laughed. ‘Same question.’

‘That you were a dumb jock and a sometimes bully with beautiful eyelashes.’

‘Eyelashes?! That’s what you noticed about me? My eyelashes?’

‘Yep.’ Annie grinned and he couldn’t help but laugh.

‘Wow, there I was spending all that time in the weight room, and I could have just batted my lashes.’

‘Truly.’

‘And what do you think of me now?’ he asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. He didn’t even know what he thought of himself lately, who he was or who he wanted to be.

Annie thought for a moment, her lips twisting to the side. ‘Now, I think you’re actually kinda sweet and you’re definitely not dumb. And I’m still jealous of your lashes.’

Mac fluttered them dramatically to cover his absurd relief at her assessment of him, and Annie giggled.

‘Same question,’ she said.

‘You’re still an over-achiever, but I don’t see it as a bad thing when it doesn’t end up in extra economics homework. Hair and ass, still perfect.’

She smacked him on the arm in mock outrage. ‘Stop talking about my ass.’

‘Sorry, I’ll try not to.’

Annie reached out and looped her finger under the gold chain around his neck. She pulled slightly until the cross that hung on the end of it dangled between them.

‘I always wondered what was on this chain.’

Mac resisted the urge to squirm. First his biggest fears and now this. Annie was seeing more of him than anyone had. But he wanted her to. He wanted her to know him, as though that would somehow help him figure himself out. Like, through her eyes, he would start to make sense.

‘Are you very religious?’ she asked, and he liked that she didn’t seem put off by the thought. Mac hadn’t been into organized religion in a while now, but plenty of his favorite people were.

‘Not particularly.’

‘But you wear a gold cross.’

‘It was my grandfather’s. He gave it to me for my confirmation.’

‘So, you’re a little bit religious,’ she said with a small smile.

‘When it suits me.’ Mac broke more Catholic rules than he followed, but when his grandpa got sick, he prayed like hell for him to get better. Not that it did much good in the end, except maybe comfort his mom.

Annie gave a little nod, taking in this piece of information about him. She still had his necklace hooked over her finger. One gentle tug and he’d be close enough to kiss her. She realized it at the same time he did, her eyes widening slightly.

‘Your eyes are very blue.’ Brilliant, Mac. Sheer freaking poetry.

‘Thank you?’

Her smile was quickly becoming his new favorite thing.

‘They’re beautiful.’

The smile grew.

‘Thank you.’

‘You’re welcome.’

‘I should probably go home.’

‘I’ll drive you.’

Neither of them moved. Annie released his necklace and let her hand rest in the space between them on the bed. They were only one of Annie’s hand’s-width apart. Annie had small hands.

‘It’s probably cold out,’ Annie whispered, her eyelids beginning to droop.

‘It definitely is.’

‘I already told my mom I was staying with a friend…’ Her voice trailed off as her eyes closed.

‘A friend?’ Mac whispered.

Annie smiled in her almost-sleep, giving him a contented sigh. ‘Yeah… a friend.’

He stayed like that, taking in all the details of her face, all the things that made her Annie.

The little scar on the bridge of her nose, the curve of her cheek, the shorter, fine blonde hairs that surrounded her face.

He knew he shouldn’t kiss her. Despite what fairy tales would have you believe, he knew a girl should be conscious for that, but God, was it tempting with her lips right there.

‘Stop staring at me, Mac. It’s creepy.’

Mac rolled onto his back with a laugh. ‘You scared the crap out of me. I thought you were asleep.’

‘No one falls asleep that quickly, and I could sense you looking at me.’

‘Sorry,’ he said, the laughter still in his voice. ‘So, are you staying over?’

‘As long as you promise not to gaze at me longingly all night.’

‘Ha! Who says I was doing it longingly?’

‘I could sense that, too.’ She was smiling now, even though her eyes were still closed.

‘No more staring,’ he promised as he pulled a blanket over her.

‘Goodnight, Annie.’

‘Goodnight, Mac,’ she murmured, snuggling down into the blanket. It was then that he realized she was still holding his stuffed polar bear.

Of course she was.

He pulled his own blanket over himself and turned away from Annie to avoid any more embarrassing staring incidents.

And that was how Mac had his first sleepover with a girl, and he honestly didn’t know if it was love or lust taking root, but it was definitely one of the two.

Or maybe both.